GB730408A - Improvements in or relating to labelling machines - Google Patents

Abstract

730,408. Labelling machines. FAIREST, Ltd., M. Oct. 30, 1953 [Oct. 30, 1952], No. 27264/52. Class 73. In a labelling machine for applying strap-like labels over stoppers in bottles, a head 1, Fig. 1, has a vertically movable spring-pressed plunger 23 surrounded by a vertically movable spring- pressed holder 4 for blocks 8 having inner resilient surfaces 49, the blocks 8 being slidable laterally in the holder 4 and located on opposite sides of the plunger 23 and the plunger head 28 and holder 4 having suction faces 34 which are aligned in their extended positions to hold a gummed label 42 and the blocks 8 having outer wedge surfaces 9 which engage corresponding wedge surfaces 10 on the head 1. The arrangement is such that during initial relative vertical movement of the bottle 44 and head 1, the plunger 23 only is moved into the head 1, the label 42 being pressed on the top of the stopper 43 and the label ends 46, Fig. 2, drawn up between the blocks 8 and the bottle mouth 47, further movement of the plunger 23 within the head 1 being accompanied by movement also of the holder 4 with its blocks 8 and the interengagement of the wedges surfaces on the blocks 8 and head 1 causing the blocks 8 to move laterally and to press with their resilient surfaces 49 the labels ends 46 against the bottle mouth 47. The plunger 23 slides within a sleeve 20 having an outer collar 29 which abuts against a shoulder 30 on the holder 4, and after the initial inward movement of the plunger 23, the plunger head 28 abuts against the collar 29 and on further inward movement takes the holder 4 with it. The blocks 8 are urged apart by springs 13, Fig. 4 (not shown) or by a spring-urged ring 55, Fig. 5, (not shown) having a conical surface 54, which engages wedging surfaces 53 on the blocks. Four blocks may be provided for applying two separate labels at right angles or a cruciform label. For continuous application to a sequence of bottles, a number of heads 1 are carried above a corresponding series of peripheral pockets in a rotatable carrier into and out of which bottles are fed in turn by star-wheels. The bottles occupy a portion only of the carrier and over the remaining portion each head 1 is moved over a label stack movable concentrically with the carrier and caused to move in register with the head by a projection from the carrier. A cam on the carrier causes the stack to lift for suction to detach the uppermost label, the projection is then withdrawn and the stack returned to its original position. The head then carries the label over a gum roller and moves on to the position at which a bottle is fed into the carrier where a cam raises the bottle or alternatively depresses the head.